Selftitled by ¡Son Turistas!

I remember Henrik and me sitting at Habibi Sounds when it was still a construction site. Henrik had brought the lyrics to "Lightning Nightling" and taught me the riff. I remember that we agreed that we wanted to make a record to dance to. When we arranged that song I stomped my foot on the wooden floor as a beat. Four to the floor, like in a techno track. That was supposed to be the feel of the album.

Then something completely different happened. We didn't make a techno record.

Pretty much all the other songs we arranged in Henrik’s tiny apartment in a very short time. Like, three or four sessions. Henrik had a couple of verses for "Thomas, Carl & Lenin" and I wrote the other two sitting on Henrik’s bed or something.

There was a song we all really liked called "The New Horse". It didn't make it on the album because somehow we didn't manage to mix it in a way it works and it would have probably ruined the album sounding unfinished. Which is a shame, but we might release it some other way some day.

"Fading Girl" is probably even older than some of the material on our first album and a dark, devastating song about depression. But then "Law School" is a song I wrote when I was going out and having fun a lot, written way later. I love the contrast of having them right one after the other in the playlist.

Carl made the playlist. I think the way he did it is genius.

There are another three songs that didn't cut it. "Run Towards The Hills With Me Now" was supposed to be the big opener, with a lot of distorted guitars. But it didn't feel right. "Saturday" was a total downer somehow and didn't work with all the uplifting pop stuff, even though Thomas was killer on drums. And "Y.O.I.R." was too indie-nerdy and lacking a hook, really.

All in all I think this one is more playful than our first record. We're leaving the shoegaze indie path a bit to explore what we can do with our voices. More harmonies and stuff. Which feels good.

Actually, we recorded the drums and guide tracks for this album in 2015 I think, which was four years ago. So even if it feels a bit newer than the debut album, this album already feels ancient to all of us. We've all played in other bands and worked on other material, so if there's ever gonna be a third Turistas album, it will probably sound even more different. Who knows. Time will tell.

These last years we weren't entirely sure if we will ever manage to mix this album. It took various versions we did not like at all, so we're stoked that we finally did it. Enjoy. This is for you.

Yulie (March 14, 2019)

What Yulie said.

Also, this album really feels like ancient history. With the recordings spending so much time on various shelves and the songs even being a lot older than that.

E.g. "Magnets" is from the same period in which I wrote "The Consequence", our first album's opener. I had made a little EP about climate change and other non-love related topics back in 2014. Both songs were adapted for the band and the same goes for "The Ending Automat". This originally was a track for my electronic stuff. I'm actually not a friend of recycling songs and don't remember why we used those songs for the record, but we were probably just trying to make a lot of songs in a short amount of time.

Five to six years later I'm still not quite sure what "Our Language" is about. Probably about the relationship I was in back then. It feels like I was trying to express some kind of unrest and work through my inability to break harmony and really talk about when things are not all good in a relationship. "Love Note", on the other hand, is an attempt to write a positive and affirming love song. So it's fitting that Carl put one at the beginning and one at the end of the album.

In my opinion, "Toy Town", "Law School", and "Fading Girl" are amongst the best songs Yulie ever wrote and I'm really happy with the way they turned out. I'm a little sad about some of the songs not making it on to the record, but who knows what will happen to them. The four days in which we recorded the drums and the guide tracks were amazing and some of my best memories of that time and I'm really happy this thing really got finished in the end. So, thanks Carl and Yulie for making that happen.

After the long time that had gone by I was almost surprised how nice the record sounds now and I hope you give it a listen.

Henrik (March 26, 2019)

Tracklist

1.	Our Language	3:26

2.	The Ending Automat	2:36

3.	Magnets	2:17

4.	Without Return	3:31

5.	Thomas, Carl & Lenin	2:16

6.	Toy Town	2:34

7.	Lightning Nightling	2:31

8.	Fading Girl	3:49

9.	Law School	1:33

10.	Love Note	4:01

Credits

released April 3, 2019

Drums, bass, organ and some vocals recorded by Carl-John Hoffmann at Niedervolthoudini Studios, Hamburg.

Guitars recorded by Yulie Themstedt at Habibi Sounds, Hamburg.

Most of the vocals recorded by Yulie Themstedt in Yulie's bedroom at Schulterblatt 62, Hamburg. Thank you, Lars, for letting us do that!

Mixed and mastered by Carl-John Hoffmann at Niedervolthoudini Studios, Hamburg.

Lyrics written by Yulie Themstedt (tracks 4, 5, 6, 8 & 9) & Henrik D. A. Schimkus (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 & 10).

Music written by Yulie Themstedt (vocals & guitar), Henrik D. A. Schimkus (vocals & guitar), Carl-John Hoffmann (bass & organ) & Thomas von Volt (drums).

Released on Irrelevant.

License